Mr. Speaker, the International Ploughing Match held this year in Haldimand-Norfolk brought together the best the nation can offer in the art of ploughing the land.

This year a friend of mine, Mr. Lloyd Vandusen, was the clear winner in two categories of ploughing. Lloyd won championship horse ploughman for Ontario and he scored the highest points of the match in the horse competition.

Lloyd is the best ploughman in Canada and probably the best in the world. I want to personally thank him for the leadership he has shown in creating and maintaining a high interest in the art of ploughing throughout this nation.

CPP was originally intended to provide retirement pensions for workers and aged survivors. Disability programs were under provincial jurisdiction.

Since 1970 when the first federal disability cheque was issued, amendments have increased benefits and made it easier to qualify. Now some insurance companies tell clients to apply for CPP disability before they collect any benefits from them. And government payments are deducted before the company plan kicks in. CPP disability is subsidizing private plans and jeopardizing the pension of every working Canadian.

That is not all that is wrong. If your disability claim is turned down by CPP, just appeal it to a tribunal. In more than three-quarters of the cases the original decision is overturned.

Let us save CPP for its original purpose: providing retirement security for our senior citizens. And let us properly address the needs of the country's disabled.

Mr. Speaker, the history of my riding has been marked by the Papineau family, whose most illustrious member, Louis-Joseph Papineau, died 125 years ago this year.

This great man and patriot, who owned the Petite-Nation seigneury, occupies an important place in Quebec history, as his main vocation was to defend the rights of Quebecers. To serve this cause, he became a member of Parliament.

The town of Papineauville in my riding was named in honour of his brother Denis-Benjamin Papineau.

Henri Bourassa, Louis-Joseph Papineau's grandson and the founder of Le Devoir , was the first mayor of Papineauville, which celebrates this year its 100th anniversary.

We are proud of this rich history. The people of Petite-Nation have inherited these great figures' love for their region. Although they died many years ago, Louis-Joseph Papineau, Denis-Benjamin Papineau and Henri Bourassa are still present in the lives of the people of the Petite-Nation region.

Mr. Speaker, in response to the B.C. government's imaginative proposals to improve the CPP, the Liberals' only response has been to absurdly

accuse the B.C. government of playing into the hands of the right-wingers at the Fraser Institute.

The Liberals can speak with authority on the Fraser Institute. They have been singing from the Fraser Institute's hymn book ever since coming to power in 1993: deficit cutting at whatever cost to medicare, the CBC and the fabric of our communities; privatizing and deregulating transportation at whatever cost to regions like northern Manitoba; attacking inflation but tolerating depression-like unemployment. It was all there on the Fraser Institute's wish list and the Liberals have delivered.

The Liberals have not delivered on jobs, they have not delivered on child care, on the CBC, on the GST, on medicare, on drug patents, in short on anything that is important to the quality of life for hard working Canadians.

If the Liberals who still have an ounce of attachment to their old tradition of building rather than destroying institutions do not stand up to the Fraser Institute interloper who poses as the finance minister, the Liberals will erode-

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the ministers of defence and foreign affairs and others on Canada's leadership in the worldwide campaign to ban land mines. I hope we continue to support the efforts of the Canadian Red Cross and Mines Action Canada to develop an effective international ban.

I also urge the government and the armed forces to support de-mining around the world. We should make particular efforts to develop effective techniques and technologies to remove the millions of land mines which kill and maim people around the world every day.

Expertise on these matters is available in Canada. Land mines, like gas and biological weapons, are inhuman and unacceptable in the modern world.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for this opportunity to applaud the accomplishments of two fastball teams from my riding of Hastings-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington. This summer the Napanee Midget and Junior Express each displaced over 30 teams to win provincial elimination competitions and to earn places in the Canadian championship playoffs.

I am also very proud today to recognize coaches and all the volunteers in this organization who provided youth with the opportunity to develop skills and a winning attitude.

The Napanee Midget Express travelled to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan where they achieved silver medal standing. The Napanee Junior Express came home from their national playoffs in St. John's, Newfoundland with gold.

During the midget eliminations which were held in my riding I commented that while winning is wonderful, the real joy resides in playing the game. Well, winning is sweet too.

I believe that only once before have two of the winning Canadian championship teams come from the same town. Look what can be done when dedicated volunteers and energetic youth combine their talents. Please join me in extending well deserved congratulations.

Mr. Speaker, Port Williams Elementary School in my riding of Annapolis Valley-Hants was recently named one of the country's five greatest schools by Today's Parent magazine.

This recognition is indeed a great accomplishment. Clearly it is proof that our public education system is a model of excellence. In communities all across this country our public schools are staffed by dedicated professionals and volunteers truly working to make a positive difference in the lives of our young people.

I would ask all members of this House to join me in congratulating Port Williams Elementary School principal Sandi Carmichael, all of her staff, the community, the volunteers and of course the students who help make this school so special. They are truly deserving of this national recognition.

Mr. Speaker, last week, the UN carried out a mid-term review of its new agenda for Africa. This five-year program is aimed at helping the 47 nations on that disaster-stricken continent, including the 35 poorest countries in the world. Canada maintained only a discreet presence at this rather important meeting to deal with the pressing poverty problem.

Eliminating world poverty is one of the priorities of Canada's foreign policy. Despite this and although Canada has always favoured international forums, the government did not see fit to

send a ministerial representative to this meeting to debate these vital issues.

It just so happens that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is in New York this week for the opening of the 51st session of the UN General Assembly. In light of the major differences between the two Canadian delegations, we question the government's real commitment to a priority it set itself. We hope this is only an honest mistake and not a decision to turn away from Africa and even from the UN.

Mr. Speaker, many Canadians are concerned that we are being culturally and economically Americanized. Why is this? Could it be because there are fewer obstacles to doing business with the United States than with other Canadian provinces?

This government has talked a lot about its commitment to removing internal trade barriers. That is good. However, its actions have been weak and ineffective. This government's complacency has led to recent conflicts between provinces. New Brunswick and B.C. are fighting over job poachers, Ontario and Quebec over construction jobs, and Quebec and Newfoundland over Churchill Falls.

These disputes which could have been settled with a strong agreement on internal trade are instead pitting province against province and harming national unity.

This government's ineffectiveness in removing internal trade barriers is eroding our national identity and is tearing our country apart.

Mr. Speaker, I want to correct a false impression that was left in the minds of Canadians as a result of an article that appeared in a national newspaper on July 23. The article implied that the government is spending more on the Francophone Games of 1997 than we spent on the Olympics in Atlanta. This is false.

In fact Sports Canada provided $615,000 to send our team to Atlanta, but it also provides $20 million annually toward the athletes' preparation programs and more than $7 million in direct assistance to our carded athletes.

Since 1992 the government has spent almost $115 million aimed at Olympic sports organizations and their athletes. That is over 40 times the amount we are spending on the Francophone Games.

The upcoming games in Madagascar are also an opportunity for our athletes to start preparing for the next Olympics. That is what happened in 1994 in Paris where Bruny Surin won the gold medal in the 100 metres and Donovan Bailey won the silver.

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon the staff of Green Gables House in Prince Edward Island National Park will be presented with a certificate of merit by the Commissioner of Official Languages on behalf of the Government of Canada.

The managers of this regional office of the Department of Canadian Heritage continue to meet the objectives of the Official Languages Act by striving at all times to maintain adequate bilingual staff. This summer the two regular and 14 seasonal employees hired were all bilingual.

Congratulations to the Prince Edward Island National Park staff for the excellent service they provide to visitors and islanders alike in both official languages.

Mr. Speaker, Quebec separatists seem determined to do away with Montreal and its people, whom they hold responsible for the successive referendum reverses they have suffered.

Besides appointing the token minister responsible for Montreal and making vague commitments to work toward national reconciliation, the Parti Quebecois has not done a thing for Montreal. It is standing by as the city slowly but inexorably loses its investors, its jobs and its brains.

As if to speed up Montreal's collapse, Quebec separatists have decided to unilaterally re-open the language debate to please a handful of radical militants.

In terms of a strategy for Montreal's recovery, we have seen better, we have never seen worse. The Parti Quebecois and its separatist allies are deluding themselves and other Quebecers with this idea that Montreal has to be weakened for their plan to achieve independence to succeed.

Mr. Speaker, we can understand that, in parliaments, all kinds of views are exchanged and differences in ideas might result in opposing, questionable views being expressed, which may even cause controversy. But we cannot and must not let an elected representative make remarks

aimed at unfairly and wrongfully discrediting another elected representative.

Yesterday, the hon. member for Pierrefonds-Dollard tried to link the leader of the Bloc Quebecois to Raymond Villeneuve, an extremist whose revolting remarks have been unanimously condemned.

How can any connection be made in this Parliament between the leader of the Bloc Quebecois and Mr. Villeneuve, when the hon. member for Roberval was the first political leader to dissociate himself from and condemn these remarks, saying that they did not reflect the views of any member of the sovereignist movement in Quebec.

It is inadmissible for a member of this Parliament to impute motives when they are totally contrary to the facts.